


Eternal

by baeberiibungh



Series: Odes [2]
Category: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Genre: Gen, poem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-29
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-25 12:13:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10764054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baeberiibungh/pseuds/baeberiibungh
Summary: Henrietta Lacks poem...





	Eternal

Cell by cell she grows still,  
A map of pain of a saint.  
It grew and grew -  
And chewed and chewed -  
Till her husk was all,  
That remained in view.

And yet it lives,  
In malcontent drops,  
Cut off from strips,  
That was her flesh;  
And I wonder often,  
If it still remembers being her.

They flay the skin,  
Bully the kin,  
And marvel at the sins,  
One mutation can hew -  
The medicaynes come to play,  
To gut and rip but is still unfair.

They say her name in holy thrall,  
Butchered up into history offal  
She was there, she did live!  
A mystery still to smiling stares  
That do not know the truth  
And certainly do not care.

She has lived now  
Lifetimes over  
In the tips of scalpels and window of scopes.  
Two family now lives in her name –  
The ones she had,  
And the ones she saved.

**Author's Note:**

> Read about her and had to write.


End file.
